Redwood-bark wall board



Sept. 18 1923. l

J. K. SHAW nnwoon BARR WALL BOARD 2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed Oct. 23. 1920Sept. 18 1923-. 1,468,036

J. K. sHAw REDWOOD BARI( WALL BOARD Filed oct. 2:5, 1920 2 sheatssheet zwuuatoa ffofmlflhaw,

Lmerals designate like parts Patented Sept. 18, 1923.

UNITED STATES JOHN K. SHAW, or MINNEAPOLIS, MiNNEsOTA.

REDWOOD-BARK WALL BOARD.

Application led October 23, 1920. Serial No. 419,048.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, .JOHN K. SHAW, a citizen 'of the United States,residing at Minneapolis, in the county of Hennepin and State ofMinnesota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Redwood-Bark -liVall Board; and I do hereby declare,

the following to be afulhclear, and exact description of the invention,'such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains tomake Aand use thesame.

This invention' relates toy a wall libre board composed of thefibrousbark material Obtained from Vthe well known redwood trees growingin California, and elsewhere, and has for its object to provide a heatinsulating board which 'will be more efficient in use and lesscxpensiveito produce than those heretofore proposed.

iVith these vand otherobjectsjin view the invention consists in thenovel `features and combinations of :features constituting the wallboard, ally as will be'more fully hereinafter disclosed and particularlypointed out in the claims. f

ln order that the exact invention may be the more clearly understood,reference is had to the `accompanying drawings forming a part of thisVspecification in which like nuin all -the views i Figure 1 is adiagrammatic sectional view of an apparatus suitable for making a boardin accordance with this invention;

Figure 2 is a diagrammatic View illustrating the fiow of fibres andwater to a foraminous 'traveling surface;

Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 2 illustrating how the libres areentangled with each other;`

Figure 4 is a diagrammatic view of a finished board made inaccordanoewith this invention; and

Figure 5`is a diagrammatic view illustrating a bundle of the red woodbark fibres detached.

In preparing the bres from which to make the above board I proceed asfollows z--The redwood bark is first chopped or otherwise removed fromthe tree, and is broken up into suitable sizes whereupon it is partiallycooked with'a caustic soda or other suitable solution, or until thechips are softened.

After thus softening the chips by the cooking operation they areireducedlaysuitable apparatus to the form of a'pu1p.' For this purpose Icanuseany well known beating engines and refiners` The pulp. wi1l be found toconsist of a mixture ofrelativelylong very `fine hair like libres and apowder like substance-which originally encased the libres or bound themtogether. v-The pul material thus formed canbe used mixe'djwit thispowder, or it can be washedandthe fine powder Iikemateri'al thusseparated from the hair like fibres. .y If the powdered Iriaterial isseparated from the hair like fibres, theflatter are passedl through afelting machine such as that-illustrated in Figure 1, whereupon thefibres are felted together into 'a compactboard, which is passed betweenrollers.` This machine, as illustrated, may consist Ofany suitable tank1 for holding lthe stock containing water and cooked libres, of a bottom2, an inclined false bottom 3flocatedfabove the bottom 2, a roll or drum4 -near the lower end of said false bottom 3, a pluralityof supportingrolls 5, a guide and compression roll 6 adjustable on the slide 7, aguide roll 8 similar to the roll f1, and a guide and tensioning roll 9adjustable on themeans 10; Passing over the rolls just mentioned is theendless foraminous 1belt or surface 11, conveniently made ofA wire clothand having the oppositely moving portions or runs 12 and 13. Between theruns 12 and 13 is located the `water outlet 15 'provided with thecontrolling means or gate l16 which may be suitably manipulated as bythe handle or other device 17.

Coacting with the foraminous surface or belt 11 and in close proximitythereto, as regards one portion thereof, is the foraminous belt 18passing over and'around the series of guide rolls` 19, 20, 21, 22, 23,Aand 24. Said belt 18 also passes over' the compression guide rolls 25coacting with the compression roll 6 and adjustably mounted on a movablemeans 26. 27 represents a tension and guide roll, adjustably mounted onthe means 28, and 29 an outlet for the water passing through the belt 18controlled by the gate 3() and adjustable lthrough the handle 31. 32 and33 Vrepresent suitable water seals of flexible materials for the belts11 and 18 respectively. 35 represents a channel or passage for water andfibres which may bev maintained at any desired hydrostatic head 36, 37an opening from the channel 35 into een sp 4 any-uw lengte maybeefniioyed.e Byrnethe tank Space or chamber 38, and 39 a partitionseparatingvsaid chamber or space 38 from the re'nieindr of the tank-.-

40 represents a second channel for water and pulp fibers, 41 the headthereof, 42 an opening from said channel into thev tank chamber or space43, and 44 e partition which with the partition 39 serves to separatesaid space 43 froxf th'frest f the tank.

45 represents a thirdchannel for Water and'fibers having e* heizd'fi,A47 en opening it the tli'- cfiiax'nbe of* sfce 48a'd 49 a piitin' coctigvivitliJ the partition to st'agelgfcte'l seid space 48 from therelnamd'er of thes tank;

P-lie foregoing mechanism is, orv ny' be sbstrtiallly the Siii 1553*t-l'tA disclosed in my @pending application #368995, filed Masaieeisieog-.andferitined nbre Hoorde of fette@ interlaced fibers Iiifelling rdiotd aclf'dia to this invention, it is preferred to"`ue ongfibres-,Unt of co'fise, the fi'lefmy be broinL-tl besiting engiegf ndthose of son, However,- of'elie affectionne ,non or che water" nifooghthe cnensbes es", @fend 4s, and by' of' the notera! tendency of thenon#- ef esteri Vto letefsny seperate 'seid bfesg'tte lattes winte-Bf'oughtfnto positions more o? les's pe'ellel tofech other', dnd merece'less perpemiceisr et on in@ of nevel @tiene sur-'feesie whileat the Samstimeen of seid stressed seiiales of abres willv eecspy positions more,of-less staggered with felation@ tnei neighbors, as Shown.

Aoeordigly, n lsfge; percentage of the fofwerd ends 61- ofA sind' fibresons policies of Willf's't cont-act iv'itli sd' s'face' 13, andwlllbecsried'xlong bytliebelty from the posing@ shown in- Figure 2, to th'ossllnx in igure,

wrangling' action Between nie fibres so and s3 will' se entonces orincreased by the oncoming .einer ener. 'seid ceinture takes 11i-see; Itresultsfroni the actions just de- Sc-,ised that seid seres es becomethem selves' inof of less' euries se indienen in Figi-ne s; andtttttthird fon; of fibres o4 which are also intel-Moes or staggered withfoi" lthe' 'riser ends- 62 of said fibres r'dfbindles'of fibres wiilhave legged beh-ind the ifoiit ends 61 inthe' the fibres 63 will becomein time curved and entangled with' the fibres 60 and 61% that havereceded said fibres 64.-

It t `us results that owing to the Boating of the fibres into parallelinterlaced, or staggered positions, and in a direction transverse to thetrovelin surface 13, the entanglement of the fi res is continuousbetween Successive rows and' the pressure of the Water causes the wholeto be very thickl)- assembled in the-i1 interlaced" positions'- on saidsurface', thus forming an openniass of fibres more co'mpa'ct next to thewire than; away from it.- Thisimass is caf-*Fried through'- the' opening70 into the Speleo 43 with one or-rnore partie-lily curved and partiallyen?` tangled layers similerto'the fibres 60 and 63 clinging to it; I'nseid chmmber orsp'nce 43 other fibres similar` to the fibres 64 becomeinterlaced and entangled vri-thi the lwy'ers on the belt, and theprocess o'f-*entaLg-lerne'nt and messing proceeds 'as befor'ez In'themeen'time, layers of fibres in: all respects similar' to the layers'63,i 64 and 60: erenterlwz'ed, entangled sind massed on the travelingbelt' 18- from the space or chamber' 48. .This second massingofribres iscarried through the opening 71` by the belt 18'V in a: condition similarto the first mentioned mass that passes the' opening 70, and the fibresin the space' 43 iterlaceA 'and beoome entangled with said seeonct massin a manner' simile-r to that described inv connection with seid firstnnnfred mass.

The result is, owing to this parallel :ind staggered relationillustrated, the" fibres in the space 43 constitute a: third mass offibres which are interlaced andenten :led with each othenasf well aiswithA each seid first named messes. Asia resnlto theVv foregoingentanglement, of the various fibres and thev motion of the surfaces 13and\18,:themess of fibres are carried through the openings 7 5 betweenthe compression' or' comp'ucting rolls 6 and 25l and is formed into asheet, or board 76, all as will be r'eadily understood'.

Not only may fibres of redwoodbark be entangled or interlaced in thelmanner above disclosed,` but fibres of one length may be placed in thechamber 45, fibres' of, another length inthe chamber' 40, and fi-br'esofstill another' length in the chamber 35,A whereupon the finished boardwill becompose'd of different layers 78, 79 and 77,` es illus` treed in'Figures 1 amd- 4.

In addition to this, by placing fibres of a different kind in the'several chambers the different layers". will becomp-osed of differentkinds of libres. Thot is to s'a-y, wood, flax or bagnsse' fibres may beplaced in the' chambers 45. :md- 35 while redwood fibres :nity be placedin the chamber 40, and high `n'rade wood fibres mif" be pleced in theChamb-"rs 45 and 35. and redwood libres alfine or redwood fibres'Aiiiiit'ed ywith other fibres may be placed in the chamber 40. In suchcases the la ers 77 and 75 will be correspondingly di erent. On theother hand, if it be desired to make a board of uniform fibresthroughout, of course, the chambers and 40 and 35 will contain a uniformmixture of fibres. A most excellent board is made by so beating oneortion of the redwood bark fibres as to fine y disintegrate the bundlesof fibres and to so beat another portion of said bark as to leave theultimate fibres in the form of bundles of fibres of a greater orV lesssize, and to mix these said very fine fibres with these said bundles offibres and felt the whole into a coherent entangled mass. In such case,the larger bundles of fibres provide air cells and the finer ultimatefibres securely tie the bundles together, thus makin a board whichentrains an unusually arge quantity of air and which therefore has a;very high heatl insulating power, while the board itself owin to theexceptional resiliency, strength, pliability and strength of theseredwood fibres is exceedinglyfiexible, pliable, resilient and strong.

The exceptional character of redwood fibres for making wall boards maybe gath, ered from Figure 5, wherein the entire bundle of fibres islettered 60, and the very fine hair like ultimate fibres are lettered100- e and 101.

The pressure used in forming the board 79 will depend upon the qualitiesvdesired in the finished product. If it is desired to pro-` vide a highheat insulating quality to the board, the pressure is slight, so that alarge quantity of air. will be entrained in the interstices of theboard, While if the board is desired to take on more the qualities oflumber and to have a harder finlsh, the' pressure is increased whichgreatly increases the, density of the board, and the latter may then besubstituted for lumber in many uses.

An important feature of this invention resides in the discovery that theindividual fibres are associated with a` substance the chemicalcomposition of which I do not know, but which renders themnon-inhammable. That is to say, a board made as above described maybe\ignited by a iiame but it will not continue to burn if left alone.Therefore, b employing this redwood bark material or the making offibrous boards, of this character, I do not have to freproof thematerial as .has been the case heretofore.

Should the above mentioned powder like substance be left with the hairlike fibres or bundles of fibres, the whole mixture of pulp is subjectedto the action of the felting machine, and the massed fibres are passe'd,through the rollers and after having been treated as above disclosed,whereupon the board will be found to be with the same pressure asheretofore more dense and more rigid and more nearly resemblingartificial lumber. Further, of course, a eater weight of board isproduced from a given weight of bark, when said owdered material is leftin the pulp than w en it is removed.

The ultimate redwood libres being unusually long and pliable, they canwith ease be mixed with other shorter fibres, filling material orvarious well known waste materials, and thus roduce excellentsubstitutes for lumber w en subjected to sufficient pressures.

It will be obvious that those skilled in the art may vary the details ofthe invention without departin from the spirit ithereof, and therefore,do not wish to be limited to the above disclosure except as ma berequired by the claims.

4 at I claim is:

1. The herein described wall fibre board composed of different layersone of said layers consisting of the fibres of redwood bark and one ofsaid` layers consisting of other ve etable bres and the fibres ofv allof said ayers interlaced with each other, substantially as described.

2. The herein described fibre board com posed of different layers one ofwhich is composed of redwood bark and o'ne of which is composedofanother vegetable fiber, said layers interlaced with each other, andthe fibres of the redwood bark carrying therewith their natural-non-iniammable substances, substantially as described.

3. The herein described heat insulating fibre board containing bundlesof fibres from red wood bark 0f different sizes bound together bysmaller fibres and also containing bagasse fibers and all of said fibresbeing substantially non-inammable, substantially as described.

4. The herein described wall board containing a substantialsercentage offibres from redwood bark an from bagasse, said board provided withdifferent layers of in- V`terlaced fibres and all of said fibres beingcompressed together to form a board of pronounced resiliency and tensilestrength, substantially as described. q

5. The herein described new fibre board containing a substantialpercentage of redwood bark mixed with a powder like Inaterial obtainedfrom the chemical treatF ment of said fibres, substantially asdescribed.

6. The herein described fibre board comprising different sized bundlesof libres from redwood bark mixed with a binding material obtained fromthe chemical treatment of said bark, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I aix my signature.

JOHN K. SHAW.

